Jamaican runner Christopher Taylor banned for avoiding a doping test and will miss Paris Olympics

MONACO — Jamaican runner Christopher Taylor was banned for 2½ years Friday for avoiding a doping test and will miss next year’s Paris Olympics.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said Taylor was banned for “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection” in Kingston, Jamaica, in November 2022. His ban expires in May 2025, when he will be 25.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Taylor placed sixth in both the individual 400 meters and the men’s 4×400 relay.

He helped Jamaica take silver in the 4×400 at the 2022 worlds in Eugene, Oregon.

Four months later, the AIU said, he was not available where he had said he could be found in Jamaica to give a doping control sample.

Taylor later acknowledged the breach of anti-doping rules and got a reduced ban. He accepted a provisional suspension while the case proceeded, forcing him to miss the 2023 worlds in Budapest, Hungary.